Epic Insights

Four Color Control

2016-06-24T18:02:00.002-07:00

The Constructed Format: Part 4

For those of you who were not aware, Origins was last week and White Wizard Games held four qualifiers for their Epic World Championship at the convention consisting of two limited events and two constructed events. Prior to this event, two qualifiers were held this year, both of which were limited tournaments. The tournaments at Origins included the first ever constructed qualifiers for Epic. In today's article I will go over the deck I used to win Friday's constructed qualifier, as well as an updated list that attempts to correct some of the problems with the deck. Below is the deck list I registered for the tournament.

For starters, I’m not recommending this exact deck list to anyone looking to play it in a future Qualifier for a couple reasons. First, a large part of why this deck was successful in this particular tournament is that most players were not prepared to play against it. Now that the deck has won a tournament and the list is public knowledge most players will be familiar with how the deck works and be prepared going forward. Second, this is a slow deck. This is probably apparent from just a brief look at the deck list. This deck includes a lot of answers and ways to not die, but few proactive cards that can actually win the game. Most games are going to be a grind to edge out an advantage over the course of a long game. The implication of a slow deck in a tournament is that many of the matches will go to time.

Each round has a fifty-minute time limit. If a game goes to time, the current player finishes their turn and then the other player gets a final turn. If there is not a winner after the final turn, the game is considered a draw. This structure in conjunction with the fact that this deck will go to time most matches means it is crucial to win the first game. If you win one game and draw another, you still win the match. You do not have to win two games; You just have to win more than your opponent. All of my matches in the Swiss portion of this event went to time, with the exception of an intentional draw in the last round. Here is the game breakdown form the Swiss by round;

Round 1: 1-0-0 against Good/Sage Control

Round 2: 1-0-0 against Sage/Evil Time Walker

Round 3: 0-0-1 against another four color control deck

Round 4: 1-1-1 against Sage/Wild Monsters

Round 5: 1-1-1 (Intentional Draw)

Going into the tournament, I knew I likely would not win any round where I lost a single game. This deck simply cannot easily win multiple games per round due to time limitation and speed of the deck. That being said, I only lost one actual game during the entire tournament. The deck struggles to win quickly but is fairly good at not losing. This ties into an important psychological advantage you can gain over your opponent if they become frustrated or lose focus over the course of a long match. They may start making mistakes and that can snowball if a player is not mentally prepared. If you are well prepared, are consistently making good plays, and have an unconventional game plan going into each match that your opponent is not prepared for, it can put you in an advantageous position.

This deck worked better in the Top 8 where there was no time restriction and it had room to breathe and grind out the long game winning each round after just two games. However, each match went on for about an hour, so it’s not too far from the edge of being viable with a few tweaks to consistently finish matches during the Swiss.

Design and Construction

This deck was designed to have answers to anything and was stacked against what I anticipated to be the most popular decks and cards. Going into the event I expected to see human tokens, a lot of direct damage, and discard decks, and powerful champions such as Sea Titan, Raging T-Rex and Strafing Dragon. These strategies and cards were the most powerful in testing for the tournament, but I also anticipated I’d play against a variety of other decks.

This deck has a lot of synergistic card combinations and, because game typically have more turns compared to most other decks, these combinations will come up more often. Drinker of Blood acts as a finisher with Flash Fire or Wither after a Zombie Apocalypse which can make a lot of zombies from discard piles full of champions. Raxxa serves as a one sided mass removal after a Zombie Apocalypse or Wave on your opponent’s turn that leaves you with a large board advantage. Corpse taker can return a Sea Titan to your hand from your discard pile which can then be played to return the Corpse taker back to hand forcing your opponent to banish Sea Titan in order to prevent it from coming back again and again. In the finals I was able to draw four cards with a single gold against a discard deck by playing an Ancient Chant from my discard pile with Lesson Learned (see Epic Combos and Rules for a detailed explanation of this interaction). This same effect can be done with Keeper of Secrets by playing and then Recycling away Ancient Chant. In theory you can draw five or even six cards from a single gold with multiple Keeper of Secrets and enough cards in your discard pile.

In addition to the synergistic combinations, many cards serve multiple functions that give the deck a lot of flexibility going into an unknown field. Blind Faith allows you to interact in ways that would otherwise be impossible. You can break unbreakable champions, block unblockable champions, target untargetable champions, take no damage from champions with breakthrough and use champions without airborne to block airborne champions to name a few interactions. This card outperformed my expectations in the tournament which is saying a lot because I already thought this was one of the best cards in my deck. The main reason I played six of the nine good cards was to enable a full set of Blind Faith. I broke a Sea Titan and blocked a Strafing Dragon with a single Medusa. I removed breakthrough from a sixteen fourteen Raging T-Rex after blocking with a zombie. I didn’t play against any token decks but Blind Faith answers Insurgency by allowing you to Flash Fire, Plague or Wither an assault of Unbreakable human tokens.

Inner Peace serves a dual purpose, the main of which is to survive against early direct damage. Several games during the tournament were within range for my opponent to win with direct damage but a timely Inner Peace kept me alive to come back later in the game. The other purpose is to serve as a card to pitch to discard effects with the potential to recall without loss of card advantage. This is less reliable as there are only six one cost gold cards in the deck, but it did come up in the finals to help me win the tournament.

Vital Mission was included with the intention of being an additional targeted removal card that could also serve as additional health gain and card advantage if needed. In practice the card was not very good. Quell was added mainly to answer tokens which I didn’t play against in the tournament. Even against tokens it servers as more of a stall than a hard answer because you typically can’t clear the entire board. I would change out these two cards for a pair of Urgent Messenger. The human tokens from Urgent Messengers serve as chump blockers which get better with Blind Faith and add additional champions to the board for Drinker of Blood or even Reaper to turn into Demons all while drawing two cards.

Zombie Apocalypse, Wave of Transformation, Inheritance of the Meek, and Plague serve as the suite of fast mass removal cards. Plague also works well as a draw two option (or draw three if an Ancient Chant is recycled) and the one damage to both your opponent and their champions can be relevant. Zombie and Wave work with Flash Fire and Wither to clear the board. There two cards can also setup a combo with Drinker of Blood on your turn in conjunction with either of the zero cost sweepers. Inheritance of the Meek also works well with the tokens in the deck to leave you a board presence after the mass removal card.

The absence of Erase in the deck is worth a discussion. In testing I did play with a set of Erase and found the tempo and card advantage beneficial almost across the board. However, the deck is carefully balanced to have exactly twenty zero cost cards which means there is not enough room for both Erase and Sea Titan without somewhat significant changes to the deck. Excluding Erase may have been a mistake and the deck may be better with it. There are just not many good reasons not to play Erase. However, Sea Titan is very important in this deck as a threat that can win the game that also serves a similar purpose to impact the board. Furthermore, the deck does not lack for card advantage so Erase was cut.

Below is an updated list that includes more threats and proactive ways to make an impact on the board at a cost of some of the more controlling cards. It is not a large deviation from the original list but has some notable changes. Soul Hunter was added as an alternative win condition working well against decks with few or no banish effects or ways to interact with the discard pile. In practice, this card generally does not do much and was therefore limited to a single copy as a late game win condition. That being said, it does work very well with Reaper enabling you to break it immediately and leave a demon token in its place. Medusa and Reaper were increased to a full set to add more champions and ways to break single targets. Reaperin particular gets better with the inclusion of Urgent Messengers and Plentiful Dead allowing you to “upgrade” your tokens into demons.

Arcane Research helps you get to a specific card when absolutely needed, but can be tricky to play with so many interactions going on in the discard pile. You don’t want to banish one cost event cards you may need later with Lesson Learned or champions you may need for zombie tokens or to bring back with Corpse Taker. You’re generally going to be banishing your non-evil zero cost cards first to leave enough evil cards in your discard pile for Unquenchable Thirst. However, these considerations all vary in importance based on the game state and match up. Arcane Research is probably the most difficult card to use correctly in this deck and you can easily lose a game by banishing the wrong cards if you’re not careful.

The addition of Plentiful Dead warrants some explanation as well. This card is meant as an answer specifically for the control mirror where both plays have more answers than threats. Plentiful Dead serves as a way to put a champion on the board at no loss of card advantage. Your opponent is going to have to answer the zombie in some way or take two damage each turn until they run out of health. This card is intended to act as a way to break a stalemate in the mirror. The best way to play this card is to never pass initiative with it in your discard pile to eliminate the possibility for your opponent to banish it.

The deck is slow, difficult to play, can be unpleasant for both players, and has a hard time winning rounds under time restrictions. For these reasons, I'm not recommending that you take this deck to the next constructed qualifier. You could certainly build the deck more proactively at a cost of some of the reactive cards to address its issues. I feel I had a lot of luck getting this deck into the Top 8 and then winning the first constructed qualifier. I’ll be continuing to practice and prepare on route to Worlds where my limited skills will be tested and Cube will factor into the limited mix.

Conclusion

I’d like to thank everyone for their congratulations and support. My success would not have been possible without the community and I just want to say thanks to everyone! I also want to give a shout out to my co-worker for helping me test and constantly coming up with new ideas.

The next few articles will cover various topics including a closer look at some of the successful constructed decks from Origins, an examination of some common mistakes and a few rules demonstrations to help everyone better understand the game. I also plan to get into the limited mix and write about Dark Draft and Cube. I’m on the Board Game Geek forums and Facebook for discussion and you can of course leave comments and questions here on Epic Insights.

How to Play Modal Cards

2016-06-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

How to Play Modal Cards

A modal card is a card that can do something "-OR-" do something else. For instance, Lying in Wait is a modal card because you can draw two cards, or if a champion is attacking alone, you can banish it. Currently all modal cards are event cards, so I just want to touch briefly on how to play event cards in general.

In order to play an event card you have to have initiative and then pay all of the costs associated with the card. This includes the cost in the top right corner of the card, which will be either 1 or 0 gold, as well as any additional costs in the text box. An example of an additional cost would be something like Feeding Frenzy when you play it to draw two cards. The additional cost to draw two cards with Feeding Frenzy is paying 1 gold. Once you've paid the costs, you announce the card and if there are two options separated by the word -OR- you chose the one you want to use at that time. Then you complete the actions in the text box in the order listed. Once all the actions are completed the card goes to the discard pile unless otherwise stated, such as on Lesson Learned.

Now, certain modal cards have one mode that only has an effect when it's your turn. For instance, the second mode on Quell will only banish all 1 cost champions if it's your turn. These modes can be referred to as "play restrictions." But what happens if you play Quell on your opponent's turn and chose the second mode by mistake? To answer this question, note that when playing a modal card you chose which mode you want to play only after you've already payed the cost and announced the card. So, you pay the cost, reveal the card, and then chose the mode in that order.

This is where things get a little non-intuitive based on the current ruling. The current ruling is that a mode with a "play restriction" cannot be played on your opponent's turn. It's not that the card will then do nothing, or that you have to then chose the other mode if you make a mistake and try to play it on your opponent's turn. The card literally cannot be played. So, if you try to play a mode with a "play restriction" on your opponent's turn, you return the card back to your hand and any costs you paid to play the card are refunded. In essence, it's a redo. You're not penalized for the error aside from your opponent now knowing one of the cards in your hand.

This result is non-intuitive because you chose the mode you want to use only after you've paid the cost of the card and announced you're going to play it. So, the intuition is that if you can't play one of the modes due to a "play restriction" then you have to choose the other mode. However, this intuition would result in the scenario where you're still left answering what to do if the player can't met the cost of the other mode. For instance, you've already used your gold but play Vanishing on your opponent's turn and try to try to return a champion to their hand by mistake. Since you've already spent your gold for the turn you can't meet the cost of the second mode and therefore couldn't have announced the card. In this kind of scenario it would be intuitive to have to put the card back in your hand since you didn't met the cost to play the card. It would be just like trying to play Gold Dragon on your opponent's turn. The champion does not have Ambush so can't be played and just goes back in your hand.

With the current ruling, instead of forcing players to chose a mode they didn't intend to use when playing the card by mistake, they simply get to put the card back in their hand. The actual end result removes some of the potential feel bad moment that can happen to new players when they make mistakes by giving them a redo. The only real price paid for the mistake is some information yielded to your opponent.

Epic is a wonderful game and currently very interesting and exciting. Particularly for constructed because there is no defined meta-game. It is also interesting from a rules perspective because it is a new game and the rules are still being defined and interpreted. It can be confusing in some scenarios for new players, and even experienced players, as new rulings come out and new interpretations are made. I'm looking forward to more evolution with Epic and hope to see many of you, along with your constructed concoctions, at Origins next weekend for the World Championship Qualifiers.

Sage Dinosaurs

2016-05-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

The Constructed Format: Part 3

Welcome back to the fourth installment of this article series. If you have not read the first three articles I'd encourage you to do so now as I will continue to reference and build upon the principles and concepts discussed previously. This article is back to constructed with a different take on a tempo deck. Previously I discussed the Apocalyptic Time Walker deck and introduced the concept of tempo. Today is a look at a wild and sage deck that hits hard and maintains pressure by simultaneously keeping up the tempo and card advantage.

This style of deck has been touched on in other posts and blogs. My first encounter with this deck involved a fair amount of skepticism. I was not initially impressed with the idea of playing a bunch of large wild champions that didn't do much to impact the board state aside from draw cards. However, after more than a couple defeats I started to examine the deck more closely and it has changed my perspective on the flow of the game.

The idea is really fairly simple. Present your opponent with a threat they have to answer which also replaces itself with a card so you don't fall behind in card advantage. Answers from your opponent will typically cost a card. This means that when all is said and done, even if your opponent is able to answer your threats, they will be down a card where as you won't. Again, it's pretty simple, yet quite powerful.

Most of the cards in this deck fit into the category described above. Threatening champions that draw a card when they come into play. Lash and Rage complement this strategy to give those champions additional damage and Breakthrough when needed, and direct damage is a powerful way to deal the last few points of health to close out a game. Brachiosaurus, Draka, Dragon, and Strafing Dragon Tyrant are additional champions with added utility. Brachiosaurus give additional Breakthrough pressure and can trigger multiple Fire Shaman and Fire Spirit abilities in the same turn. Draka can wipe out the smaller champions on an opponent's board and Strafing Dragon can apply direct damage and a lot of flexibility with Ambush and Blitz. Draka's Fire, Fireball and Flash Fire are more ways to answer tokens and other small champions. Drain Essence gives more targeted removal and health gain when needed in a pinch. Remember, unlike MTG, you can play cards like Drain Essence without a target if you're in need of some quick health. Stand Alone works nicely as another mass removal card in this deck because you'll generally only have one champion on the board at a time. Erase is arguably the most powerful draw two card in the game and Amnesia gives the deck some interaction with your opponent's discard pile. Thought Plucker could really be anything, but I Iike having the additional card advantage and discard pressure. Plus it works well with Rage and Smash and Burn (Lash, not so much).

Card Advantage

Many of you will be familiar with the idea of card advantage. In simple terms you have card advantage when you have more cards than your opponent. More cards means more options and more options are better than fewer. A card like Raging T-Rex produces card advantage. For instance, if you have a hand with five cards and you play Raging T-Rex, triggering its Loyalty 2 ability, you will draw two cards and end up with a hand with six cards. You are now up a card and have a larger hand size than before you played the card. Cards like Triceratops have no card advantage nor card disadvantage. The card just replaces itself when you play it and your hand size remains the same. Cards like Fireball can create card disadvantage because you're hand size will be one less for having played the card.

Card advantage applies in several ways. In addition to applying to hand size, it also applies when talking about the effect of a card on the board state. For example, a card like Apocalypse can generate card advantage when using it to break all champions. Let's say your opponent has been aggressive on the first turn and has a Dark Knight and Juggernaut in play while you have nothing on your side of the board. When you play Apocalypse to break all champions you've effectively used one card to "get rid of" two of your opponent's. In this way, you've generated card advantage. These two applications can combine so that if you play a Fireball, that would normally be card disadvantage, to break your opponent's High King and Priestess of Angeline, you've actually generated card advantage. You used one card from your hand to eliminate two of your opponent's cards on the board.

It can be helpful when thinking about card advantage to treat each card as a resource that can be used to generate more resources for yourself or eliminate resources of your opponent. You can think of the net effect that would result from playing a card and determine whether the play would generate card advantage or card disadvantage. Plays that generate card advantage are generally preferable to ones that do not, but as I like to point out, there are always exceptions and sometimes card disadvantage is the only good play you can make.

Determining the net card advantage of a play can become tricky when reconciling the effective card value of tokens and abilities. In other words, a human token is probably worth less than one card because you can produce many with a single card. Yet, situations will occur where it's best to spend a card to remove a token from play and the token could arguably be as valuable as a whole card. Also, expend abilities like Corpse Taker or the triggers from Drinker of Blood may be worth more or less than a card depending on the situation. Regardless of these complications, card advantage gives us a method to gauge the state of the game and evaluate the legitimacy of certain plays over others.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading. If there is any topic in particular you'd like to see covered in a future article, please let me know. If you have any questions you can submit them in the comments section and I will respond. Next article will examine a take on the boogey man of the current constructed format. Or should I say, boogey men? As always, you can find me on BBG and Reddit as EpicAgenda or on Facebook and Twitter.

Epic Combos and Rules

2016-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Epic Combos and Rules

Welcome back to the third installment of this article series. If you have not read the first two articles I'd encourage you to do so, especially if you're interested in the constructed format. In those articles I covered two different takes on aggressive decks as well as various topics including Opportunity Cost, Tempo, and Velocity. This article will be quite different from the last two. Rather than looking at a new constructed deck list and touching on more of the philosophy in the game I'll be going over some interesting card interactions and their rules implications that ought to be understood in order to play the game competitively. Some of these interactions are highlighted here because they can be non-intuitive and cause some confusion even among experienced players who may not have come across them before. I'm also pointing out a few because there is some contradictory information on the Official Epic Website and this article will reference the most accurate and relevant information. You'll frequently encounter these rules at play and should understand them if you're looking to be successful in a competitive environment. It is important to be mindful at this point that the rules are still evolving and Epic is a new game that has only been around for less than a year. It is expected that some of these rules may change over time. Now, without further delay, let's get into some Epic Combos!

Vital Mission and The People's Champion

What happens when you try to banish an unbanishable champion? Exactly what you would think. The unbanishable champions says "you can't banish me" and doesn't get banished. So then you might ask, what would happen if I controlled The People's Champion and targeted it with my own Vital Mission? Exactly what you would think. It doesn't get banished, you gain health equal to its offense, draw two cards and get two human tokens out of the exchange. How does that sound for a bargain!?

Infernal Gatekeeper and Apocalypse

This combination illustrates an important rules mechanic that applies to many other situations and is critical to understand. The rules mechanic is that triggered ally abilities wait to resolve until after the card that was played from your hand to trigger them is done resolving. This means that if you have Infernal Gatekeeper in play, and you play Apocalypse on your turn to break all champions, the triggered ability from Infernal Gatekeeper waits until Apocalypse is done resolving. Apocalypse breaks all champions and then goes to the discard pile because it's finished resolving. It is only at this point that the triggered ability from Infernal Gatekeeper gets to resolve and you can pay a health to put a Demon token into play. This turns out to be a nice play because you've broken all champions, which usually leaves the board state at parity, but instead you're left with a Demon token in play and are now ahead.

Blue Dragon and Wave of Transformation

Blue Dragon and Wave of Transformation behave in the same way as Infernal Gatekeeper and Apocalypse. However, the weird thing to note is that the triggered ally ability from Blue Dragon can be used to deal two damage to a wolf token put into play with Wave of Transformation. This is weird because at no point are Blue Dragon and the wolf token in play at the same time, yet Blue Dragon's ally ability can break the wolf token. Again, this only works because triggered ally abilities wait to resolve until after the card that was played is done resolving.

Reaper and Soul Hunter

Soul Hunter is a powerful but slow card that takes some setup to get going. One way to get a head start is to play Soul Hunter when you already have a Reaper in play. This interaction calls on the rule again that triggered ally abilities wait to resolve. When you play Soul Hunter, the triggered ability from Reaper won't resolve until after Soul Hunter is already in play. You can then target Soul Hunter to deal five damage to an opponent and put a demon token into play.

Wither and Insurgency

Have you ever felt hopeless in the face of an unbreakable token onslaught? Have you ever searched your hand for at least a way not to die immediately when facing the horde? Well, Wither is here to offer an answer. Even though unbreakable champions cannot be broken, they can still be dealt damage. Wither deals three damage to target champion and each champion with the same name and reduces the offense of each damaged champion by three. So those human tokens may be unbreakable this turn, but you'll at least be taking a lot less damage and they'll be vulnerable next turn.

Thought Plucker and The Gudgeon

If your opponent has The Gudgeon in play and you play a Thought Plucker, your opponent will not discard a card from the triggered ability, but you will still draw a card. After the errata update on Thought Plucker, the Tribute effect reads "Target opponent discards a card. You draw card." Even though your opponent is untargetable, and therefore can't be targeted by the first part of the effect, you still continue to complete all steps from the triggered ability and draw a card. In contrast to the Tribute ability on Thought Plucker, when Thought Plucker deals damage to an opponent, "That player discards a card. You draw a card." This triggered ability does not target and therefore will cause an opponent with The Gudgeon in play to discard. Fortunately, the timing was such that the errata on Thought Plucker was made before any effect existed that could make a player untargetable. So there was never much debate around which way this interaction worked. It's now just important to know that Thought Plucker's Tribute ability targets whereas its other triggered ability does not.

Drinker of Blood and Drinker of Blood

If both players have a Drinker of Blood in play and there are a bunch of human tokens on the board, it's important to know whose turn it is if either player wants to play a card to break all of the tokens. When triggered abilities happen simultaneously on both sides of the board, the active player (the player whose turn it is) resolves all of their triggers first before the other play. If at any point a player's health is at 0 or below, they lose the game, even if there are triggers waiting to be resolved. This mean that you need to play Flash Fire on your turn to KO your opponent when you both have Drinker's of Blood in play. If you Flash Fire on their turn, you'll KO yourself.

Brachiosaurus and Ankylosaurus

Imagine you finally bought and opened your brand new Tyrant cards. You're so excited to try out the new dinosaurs you put in your Wild deck when you finally sit down to play the cards with your friend for the first time. You're smashing face with Triceratops and your new buddy Great Horned Lizard. You Play Brachiosaurus and use the gold from its Tribute to draw a card with Ankylosaurus. Then your friend stops you and says "That's a triggered ability on Ankylosaurus. Not a power. You can't use the gold from Brachiosaurus on it." Wait, what!? Yeah... Here's the relevant quote from the Director of Organized Play;

"Per R&D, this interaction was always intended to work, and within the next day or so we'll issue a fix, which will most likely be in the form of errata on Brachiosaurus. So effective immediately, your dino pals will play nice."

So as it currently stands, you can use the Gold from Brachiosaurus on the triggeredability from Ankylosaurus even though it says the gold can only be used to play wild cards and powers. Sadly, we don't have an official fix in the form of errata on Brachiosaurus or any other fix aside from the above forum post to help clarify this interaction. So technically, the rules as they currently read don't support that this interaction works in the way WWGs is saying it does.

Drain Essence

The history behind this card is important. Before the Comprehensive Rules were published there was a time when the small booklet that came with the base set was the only reference material available for understanding the rules. Unfortunately, this insert is not the most elegant nor definitive reference guide for Epic. After receiving a lot of questions from the community, WWGs published the Card Ruling which were more granular and meant as an FAQ for each individual card. Drain Essence said (and still currently says because it has not yet been updated) the following;

"If you do not have a champion you can target, you cannot play this card."

This seems pretty obvious, right? You deal 9 damage to a champion and drain it's essence so you gain 9 health. If there is no champion to target you can't drain its essence. Right? Well, things have changed now that the Comprehensive Rules have been published. The current ruling from the Director of Organized Play is now exactly the opposite and you can play this card with no champion in play and gain 9 health. But wait, this directly contradicts the Card Rulings! And besides, how can you gain life by draining something's essence when there is no champion with essence to be drained!? It makes no sense, you might say. And you'd be right! However, 3.2.3d in the Comprehensive Rules reads;

"If a card or power refers to targeting something, those targets are chosen at the time the effect resolves, not when the card or power is first played."

This means you do not have to check whether or not a card has a legal target before choosing to play it. You decide to play the card and perform the instructions listed on the card in order. If you can't complete one of the steps because, for instance, there is no champion to target, you simply skip it and move on to the next step. Here is a quote from the Director of Organized Play regarding this rules change;

"Originally we had decided that having a legal target was essential to playing a card or effect. R&D [Rob and Darwin] made the decision when designing Tyrants that we should not have the restriction for playing the card or effect, and thus the rule was changed."

It is important to point out that if there is a valid target, you must chose it, even if it is detrimental to you.

Lesson Learned and Ancient Chant

Welcome to the arena! Now that we've covered a few of the important rules, let's go over one of the more difficult interactions. Do you understand how cards resolve? Do you understand how triggers work. Let's find out with a little quiz.

How many cards will you draw if you play Lesson Learned and choose Ancient Chant in your discard pile to play without paying its cost? If your answer is four, you'd be right! Make sense? Confused? Either way, let's go through the details;

· Lesson Learned is played and goes to the Supplemental Zone while it completes its resolution.

· Ancient Chant is chosen as the card to be played without paying its cost and goes from the discard pile to the Supplemental Zone. This triggers the effect from Ancient Chant because it has left the discard pile, but the effect waits to resolve until Lessoned Learned and Ancient Chant are done resolving.

· Two cards are drawn from Ancient Chant which then finishes resolving and goes to the discard pile.

· Lesson Learned finishes resolving and banishes itself along with Ancient Chant. Ancient Chant leaves the discard pile for a second time now both triggers can resolve and you draw two more cards for a total of four cards!

Conclusion

That'll do it for this article. Have fun enjoying these interesting Epic combos and discovering others for yourself. If you have any questions you can submit them in the comments section and I will respond to them. Next article will be back to constructed and I'll be going over another tempo deck, but one that is less aggressive than the Apocalyptic Time Walker deck. As always, you can find me on BBG and Reddit as EpicAgenda or on Facebook and Twitter.

Apocalyptic Time Walker

2016-04-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Constructed Format: Part 2

Welcome back to the second installment of this article series. If you did not catch the first article titled Wild Burn you can find it hereon Epic Insights. Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on the article and deck list. For those of you who have not yet read that article I would encourage you to do so now as I will be building upon and referring back to the concepts and principles discussed therein.

Today's article will start off with the deck list hinted at in the previous article. This deck approaches the format with a strategy different from the Wild Burn deck. Where the Wild Burn deck was all about dealing as much direct damage to your opponent as fast as possible, this deck is all about tempo!

Deck List: Apocalyptic Time Walker

Sage Cards (33 Cards)

2x Amnesia

3x Erase

3x Forcemage Apprentice

3x Juggernaut

3x Keeper of Secrets

3x Sea Titan

3x Shadow Imp

1x Temporal Enforcer

3x Frost Giant

3x Time Bender

3x Time Walker

3x Turn

Evil Cards (27 Cards)

3x Army of the Apocalypse

3x Bitten

3x Dark Knight

3x Drain Essence

3x Guilt Demon

3x Inner Demon

3x Thrasher Demon

3x Vampire Lord

3x Zombie Apocalypse

This is a classic TCG tempo deck. The deck is designed to play as many 0 cost champions that have blitz as possible to put the pressure on your opponent immediately and gain a tempo advantage from the very first turn. This aggression is backup with powerful removal and bounce effects that enable you to maintain your advantage on the board. What's really cool about this deck is how all these 0 cost champions with blitz interact with bounce effects like Time Walker and Time Bender. You can attack or use their powers and abilities immediately and then return them to your hand to be replayed and ready to go again in the same turn. These champions also interact nicely with Army of the Apocalypse because when you bring them all back from the discard pile they have blitz so they're immediately ready to go. This is an nice way to close out a game. You can finish off a game with a Frost Giant to make room for the rest of your champions to deal the final damage to your opponent.

There are a few cards that fill out the deck and synergize with the rest of the cards. Turn works to gain control of your opponent's champions on your turn to maintain the tempo advantage. You can also play Turn targeting your own champion, such as Vampire Lord or Juggernaut to attack twice in the same turn. You can also do this on Time Bender with its abilities. The health from Drain Essence can be very useful against the Wild Burn deck and other aggressive strategies. Time Walker can essentially reset all of your 0 cost champions in play while removing all of their champions off the board and can be a good finisher as well. Frost Giant, Juggernaut, and Vampire Lord all have blitz and synergize well with Army of the Apocalypse. Temporal Enforcer gives you more ways to bounce either your opponent's champions or your own. This slot could also be changed to a Deadly Raid with can setup a nice unexpected assault of unblockable champions. Zombie Apocalypse sequences nicely into an Army of the Apocalypse or Time Walker and can help to get you back into games where you've fallen behind.

Tempo

So, I've mentioned tempo a few times, but we have yet to go over what tempo is. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it can be one of the more difficult concepts to get your head around in TCGs. This somewhat elusive principle can take some time to fully grasp as it is very fluid and imprecise, but there are some ideas that are simple enough to understand from the outset. Tempo is essentially a way to talk about the pace of the game. Generally, a player is dictating the pace of the game when their opponent is having to respond to and answer their threats rather than producing threats of their own. There are a lot of ways you can go about gaining tempo. For example, if you play a Dark Knight and attack, you are being proactive and giving your opponent a question to answer. If they respond by Ambushing in a champion to block that costs 1 gold, you can play Erase and return it to their hand before they can block. With this sequence, your Dark Knight will still be attacking and you've gained a tempo advantage because you were able to manipulate the board state to enable Dark Knight to damage your opponent. If you continue these kinds of sequences and maintain this advantage over the course of the game your opponent will probably lose.

Another way to think about tempo is who is more successful in advancing their game plan. With the Wild Burn deck, if you're quickly slamming out your direct damage cards and successfully doing a lot of damage to your opponent very quickly, you're deck could be said to have the tempo advantage. Your opponent is going to have to do something to thwart your game plan, or outpace your damage in order to have a chance at winning the game. The Apocalyptic Time Walker deck is looking to gain the tempo advantage on the board which is the more common way to gain tempo. This deck is focused on winning the game by abusing the combat system in Epic that allows a champion to attack and use abilities more than once in the same turn.

Tempo is a common principle in TCGs and is easily translatable to Epic if you have a understanding of the concept from a game like MTG. A new concept that's related to Tempo, but is somewhat unique to Epic is a Velocity.

Velocity

Velocity is a metric that can be used to gauge how well a deck is at using its gold. Velocity indicates not only how much gold a card costs, but also when that card can be played. The below chart summarizes how to determine a cards' velocity;

Card Type	Ambush	Cost	Velocity	Reason
Champion	No	1	0	Costs a gold and can only be played on your turn.
Champion	No	0	1	Does not cost a gold and can only be played on your turn.
Champion	Yes	1	2	Costs a gold and can be played on an opponent's turn.
Event	-	1	2	Costs a gold and can be played on an opponent's turn.
Champion	Yes	0	3	Does not cost a gold and can be played on an opponent's turn.
Event	-	0	3	Does not cost a gold and can be played on an opponent's turn.

Cards that cost zero gold have greater velocity than comparable cards that cost one gold because you are not restricted on the number of zero cost cards you can play in a turn. Events and Champions with Ambush have greater velocity than comparable Champions without Ambush because they can be played on an opponent's turn. These kinds of cards are typically referred to as fast and slow cards.

It is important to note that velocity is typically inverse to power. The most impactful cards typically cost a gold and do not have Ambush while the least powerful cards tend to cost zero and can be played on your opponent's turn. However, every card in Epic can be very impactful in the right situations. For instance, Thundarus is a very powerful card but is pretty bad when your opponent returns it to your hand with Erase. Flash Fire can be underwhelming but is invaluable when your opponent plays Courageous Soul and Secret Legion.

Velocity relates to Tempo. You need to have a sufficient Velocity to be able to maintain your tempo advantage. If you have a deck with a low overall Velocity, you will probably find that your deck gets bottlenecked with cards in your hand that you are unable to play either because they cost a gold or because they can only be played on your turn. You should try to use your gold each turn if able and have sufficient overall deck Velocity to give you the best chance to do so.

In practice, decks with less than 80 velocity typically have trouble playing out their cards at a good pace and can fall behind in tempo. If you have a velocity above 100 you'll want to make sure you have enough card draw so that you do not run out of cards and miss out on using your gold every turn. You'll want to work on tuning your deck to have the right balance between power, velocity, and card draw. This can be one of the most difficult parts about deck building and only comes with practice.

Conclusion

Next article I'll be switching gears a little and instead over talking about a new deck list I'll be addressing some interesting combos and rules interactions. Through my experience so far with Epic I have found that the rules of the game are still evolving and changing. There are some core principles that are necessary to understand in order to work out certain card interactions which are not initially intuitive. Leave feedback in the comments and find me on Board Game Geek and Reddit as EpicAgenda or on Facebook and Twitter. Until next time, keep brewing!

Cockatrice Game Replays

2016-04-20T19:27:00.002-07:00

I added replays of my cockatrice games. You can reach them from the side panel.

How to watch:

1) Go to the link and download the replay files.
2) Move files to "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Cockatrice\Cockatrice\replays"
3) Open cockatrice, go to Game Replays tab.
4) Select a replay and click 'eye' button below.

If you want to share your games, do not hesitate to contact me.

Decks in Epic Foundry

2016-04-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Epic Foundry launched. I posted 4 decklists there. They can be reached from the right column. I tried to investigate trickier decks instead of straightforward ones. Please let me know your opinions on decks.

Have fun!

Cockatrice Play Guide

2016-04-09T15:07:00.002-07:00

I created this guide from my personal experiences and agreed convention with other players I played. It aims to make games a little bit smoother. If you have any suggestions / comments, please post them down below.

Initial Setup

1) Greet your opponent. It is a kind thing to do. :)
2) Roll a d20. (CTRL + I)
3) Create "1 Gold" and "Initiative" tokens. (CTRL + T)
4) Increase your life to 30. (CTRL + L)
5) Shuffle your deck. (CTRL + S)
5) Draw 5 cards. (CTRL + D)

Using Your Gold

Just 'Double Click' your gold token to show that you are spending your gold. A "tapped" gold indicates a used gold.

Unused Used

Initiative

To "pass the initiative", 'Double Click' on it. The convention with initiative is, 'active player' (player whose turn it is) has the initiative if initiative tokens "match". (Red borders in the picture are irrelevant.)

Active player has the initiative.

If tokens "does not match", then 'nonactive player' has the initiative.

Nonactive player has the initiative.

Champion States

Below picture illustrates different champion states.

In above picture,

'Hunting Raptors' is "prepared",

'Juggernaut' is "expended",

'Kong' is "flipped" with 5 damage on it,

'Raging T-Rex' is "deploying".

Use below the line for "deploying' champions and above the line for "prepared" champions.

Useful Shortcuts / Directions.

Banishing cards: 'Right Click' -> 'Move To' -> 'Bottom of library'

"Unbanishing" cards: 'Right Click' on deck -> Put bottom card in graveyard

Undo last draw: CTRL + SHIFT + D

Increase offense / defense: CTRL + + / ALT + + (hold both for increasing both at the same time)

Decrease offense / defense: CTRL + - / ALT + - (hold both for decreasing both at the same time)

Write "FLIPPED": 'Right Click' -> 'Set annotation...'

Add / remove damage: 'Right Click' -> 'Set counters (Red)...'

Creating arrows: Hold 'Right Click' from source to destination. (Used for blocking / targeting)

Removing an arrow: 'Right Click' on it.

Create tokens: CTRL + T

Expend / Prepare: 'Double Click'

Prepare all: CTRL + U

Wild Burn

2016-04-03T17:50:00.004-07:00

Introduction

My name is Derek Arnold and I have about eighteen years of TCG experience playing Magic the Gathering (MTG). I played MTG on and off casually with friends for the first eight years or so after which I became more competitive and started attending local tournaments and drafting several times a week. I grew a decent collection IRL and online and eventually started playing legacy and made my own cube. I've learned a lot about that game over those eighteen years and have experience from which to draw upon when approaching Epic. Anyone who has experience with TCGs knows that there are certain principles common among most TCGs. Many of the principles of MTG translate fairly well to Epic. However, Epic is obviously a different game and we as gamers can benefits from examining it with a fresh perspective.

In this article series I will share some of the common principles I've learned through my TCG experience and explore the unique aspects of Epic that should to be understood to play the game at a competitive level. My focus will be on competitive play in general so I'll get into the constructed and limited formats which are used in the World Championship Series. I thoroughly enjoy this game, not only for its price tag and similarity to MTG, but also for its over-the-top game play experience and remarkable depth of strategy. I am very passionate about this game and my intent is to provide content for competitive and passionate players that generates discussion to help grow the community.

The Constructed Format: Part 1

Epic currently has no competitive development for constructed play. Organized play has not yet started for this format so there are no deck lists available from sanctioned tournaments. This puts the community in a rare and very cool position of getting to discover the constructed environment from scratch. Now is the time to experiment with ideas and explore the possibilities in search of the best decks available. In each constructed article I'll examine a different deck that I believe has potential to do well in a tournament. Throughout the articles I'll go over some ideas that influenced deck construction and explain the reasoning behind certain card choices and how I play the deck. Now, before we get into today's deck list, I'd like to start off from square one with the basics and go over exactly how to build a constructed deck.

How to Build a Deck

A constructed deck consists of a minimum of 60 cards. For each card in the deck that costs zero gold and is free to play you must include two cards of the same alignment that cost one gold. For example, if you wanted to put a Brave Squire in your deck you would need to include two good cards that cost one gold each. You could add two Avenging Angels to your deck to satisfy this requirements. Given this restriction, a 60 card deck can only have at most twenty zero cost cards. You could play more than 60 cards in order to have more zero cost cards in your deck. However, a general rule of thumb with TCGs is to stick with the minimum deck size to maximize the chance to drawing any given card in your deck.

For reasons that I'll get into in a separate article, you'll generally want to play as close to 20 zero cost cards as you can. Fitting exactly twenty zero cost cards into your deck can be a challenge with a 60 card deck if your deck is made up of many alliances or you don't want certain zero cost cards in your deck. Fortunately, as you start building decks you'll quickly get a good sense of how to "turn the dials" so to speak in order to get the ratios correct to make a legal deck with 20 zero cost cards. Next, I'll go over a fundamental concept that influences my approach to deck building in Epic.

Maximizing Your Gold

Unlike MTG, Epic does not have a card based resource or a resource that builds up over time. Instead, each player gets one gold on each turn which can be used to play cards and activate powers, but is lost at the end of each turn if un-used. You can play cards on your turn and you can play cards on your opponent's turn. Maximizing your gold resource means you're using your gold on every turn including your opponent's turn. To get a better understanding of this concept, imagine a deck containing nothing but cards that can only be played on your turn. This deck would have no Champions with Ambush and no Event cards. This deck would only ever utilize half of its available gold over the course of the game because it will never use gold on its opponent's turn. In contrast, imagine a deck containing a mix of cards including Champions with Ambush and Event cards. This deck could potentially use gold on every single turn of the game given the right sequence of cards. Now picture what a game would look like between these two decks. The player with the mix of cards would know on every one of their turns that their opponent cannot play any cards that cost a gold. Every turn could be planned out knowing that anything their opponent could do would have to be on the board or not cost a gold. There would be no real surprises. Furthermore, they could potentially play twice as many cards as their opponent over the course of the game because they would be able to utilize the gold available on their opponent's turn while their opponent would not. When building your deck, you want to be sure you can use your gold on your opponent's turn by including Champions with Ambush and Event cards.

Gold Baiting

It's generally going to be correct to use your gold every turn when possible. This means putting Event cards and Champions with Ambush in your deck to enable you to use the gold you have on your opponent's turn. However, it is necessary to be mindful of when you are using their gold in relation to your opponent. You don't want to mindlessly use your gold at random points throughout the turn because you can be punished for not considering the timing of when to play your cards. One way you can be punished is with a tactic called Gold Baiting.

Gold Baiting is encouraging your opponent to use their gold first. Once they do, they way is clear to play out the rest of your turn without having to worry about what other one cost gold cards your opponent can play. There are many ways you can bait your opponent into using their gold first. You can attempt to end your turn without having used your gold in order to incentivize them to use their gold first. You can attack to entice a response from your opponent that may end up costing them a gold. If your opponent uses their gold, it puts you back into your turn and you can play cards, attack with champions and use powers. Gold Baiting is powerful when you have a better board position and can dictate the pace of the game. The real benefit of Gold Bating is that once your opponent has used their gold for the turn, their options for what they can do for the rest of the turn become significantly reduced and generally less impactful. There are only so many zero cost cards in the game and only so many effects that can be done with them. Knowing these effects will help you navigate the rest of your turn to take full advantage of having successfully gold baited your opponent.

Fortunately, there are several ways to defend against Gold Baiting. One tactic is to simply call their bluff and end the turn if they've passed without using their gold. You will have missed out on using your gold for the turn, but so will they. This is a good option if the board is fairly even and you decide you can afford to pass on making any plays for the turn. Another option is to play powerful zero cost cards like Spawning Demon and Muse that your opponent will not want to stay in play. These cards incentivize them to use their gold to get rid of these champion. My personal favorite response to Gold Baiting is Ceasefire. If your opponent passes the turn without using their gold, you can simply cast Ceasefire and shut down their plans to play any champions with blitz or attack with any ready champions in play. You'll have used your Gold, but also prevented them from attacking for the rest of that turn. Not only this, but you'll have gotten two cards out of the deal as well!

I started off by stating that a general principle of Epic is to spend your gold every turn if possible. However, we know that blindly following this rule can leave you vulnerable to Gold Baiting. So, what's the right balance? It may be best to spend your gold every turn as best you can, but not before your opponent if at all possible. But, what does that mean exactly? Well let's finally get into today's deck list and take a more practical approach.

Deck List: Wild Burn

This deck list is possibly one of the most dangerous decks in the format. This deck can consistently win within the first few turns if you're not prepared. It's all about direct damage!

Wild Cards (33 cards) Sage Cards (27 cards)

3x Draka's Fire 3x Ancient Chant

3x Fire Shaman 3x Blue Dragon

3x Fireball 3x Forcemage Apprentice

3x Flame Strike 3x Helion, the Dominator

3x Flash Fire 3x Keeper of Secrets

3x Forked Lightning 3x Lesson Learned

3x Hunting Raptors 3x Memory Spirit

3x Lightning Storm 3x Muse

3x Pyromancer 3x Thought Plucker

3x Rain of Fire

3x Strafing Dragon

This deck is designed to deal as much damage to the opponent as fast as possible. Most of the cards in this deck are self explanatory. If they say "damage" on the card, they're in the deck. However, some of the others cards may require some explanation. Memory Spirit and Lesson Learned are essentially direct damage cards in that you can replay direct damage cards from your discard pile. An important interaction to note is between Ancient Chant and Lesson Learned. If you replay an Ancient Chant from your discard pile with Lesson Learned you will actually draw four cards! This is not an intuitive interaction, so don't be too concerned if you don't immediately understand what's going on. Muse and Thought Plucker help you draw more cards, and thus more direct damage. Keeper of Secrets can also draw a bunch of cards, especially when Recycling an Ancient Chant, and combats problem cards like Inner Peace.

Opportunity Cost

The Wild Burn deck highlights another principle I used when playing MTG that also applies to Epic. The principle is opportunity cost. Opportunity Cost is familiar to anyone who has ever taken a course is economics. It is essentially what you are giving up by taking a particular action. In other words, by doing something you have incurred the cost of not doing something else. For example, if you play a Flame Strike targeting your opponent who has an Angel of Mercy in play, part of the opportunity cost for this action is not breaking Angel of Mercy. The purpose of using opportunity cost is to make better decisions by choosing actions that have a low opportunity cost.

In the Flame Strike scenario above, if your opponent has 8 health left, the opportunity cost is straightforward; Targeting your opponent with Flame Strike is better than targeting Angel of Mercy. Here, the opportunity cost of targeting the Angel of Mercy is not immediately winning the game. If instead your opponent is at 9 and they have an Angel of Light in their discard pile, then it becomes more difficult. In this scenario it may be better to target the Angel of Mercy, because if you don't, they can return Angel of Light to play at the start of their turn and gain five, if not ten health and negate your damage from Flame Strike. While the Wild Burn deck is designed to deal as much damage to the opponent as fast as possible, it is important to step back and evaluate the state of the game to determine the best use for each individual card. Is it best to always target your opponent and deal the damage directly to them? Maybe, but probably not, and thinking about opportunity cost can help you identify those situations where it might be better to stray from the most obvious use of the card.

Unfortunately, when calculating opportunity cost you need to know all possible actions that could be taken in order to accurately determine the cost of any one particular action. This is a monstrously challenging task and pragmatically impossible in a TCG. Calculating the opportunity cost for just one single action involves a staggering number of possibilities, let alone calculating it for every action over the course of an entire game! There is no practical way to do this when you're sitting across from your opponent in a tournament with time limitations. However, thinking about opportunity cost can help put you in the mind set to start weighing the benefits of one action over another. You'll start to notice certain patterns and eventually develop an intuition for what's a better play than another.

Conclusion

Next time I'll start with another deck list that approaches the format with a strategy different from the Wild Burn deck. I'll also continue the discussion about Epic principles and general TCG principle that apply to Epic. Before we're done today I'd just like to reiterate how passionate I am about this game. This is a very fulfilling game for me because there is so much depth and the game play interactions are so rich. Unfortunately the game has a significant barrier to entry as it can take a decent amount of work to understand the rules properly and appreciate the game. If you're already playing, please engage with the community if you'd like to see this game grow. The best way for this game to become more popular is for passionate players to share the game with others and hope they will see its value.

I'm eager for questions and comments that are constructive and encourage you to leave feedback on the kind of content you'd like to see. For example, if you don't understand the interaction between Ancient Chant and Lesson Learned I can provide a detailed explanation in a future article. You can find me on Board Game Geek and Reddit where I go by EpicAgenda or on Facebook and Twitter as well. Until next time, keep brewing!

Derek Arnold

Epic can be so Limited

2016-03-31T22:01:00.002-07:00

I am a former player of Magic: the Gathering; 18 years worth to be exact. I left because of costs, opportunities to play, and an overall dissatisfaction with what it took to enjoy the game on the levels I used to. After my retirement from MtG, I sold everything except my Foil Pauper Cube. I love the Cube format, and that is why Epic Card Game appeals to me; it is a 120 card Cube for $15 or less. And it plays up to 3 right out of the box.

What is Limited?
Limited is any format that is not Constructed. Not a very helpful description? Well, let’s dive in a bit deeper. Limited is made up of the various Draft Formats and the Sealed Formats.

Let’s talk Drafting. From the official Home Page, there are a few recommended ways of doing it depending on player count, playstyle, and product usage. Let’s break down a few you can do right now without question from a single 120-card package of Epic.

• Dark Draft - 2 Player Format - 100 Cards
o Shuffle the “Stack”
o Deal each player 5 cards
o Each player now picks 1 card, puts it facedown in front of them and passes the remaining.
o Each player takes the passed 4 cards, picks another 2 to keep
o Discard the other 2
o Do this until each player has 30 cards; this should be 10 total 5 Card dealings. This will use up 100 cards, leaving 20 unused/unseen cards.

In my opinion, this is one of the most agonizing, enjoyable, and story-worthy of the recommended format. The choices are hard. You need to take the best card for your deck, or perhaps the best card for your opponent’s deck, in your initial 5. The you are giving them quite the choice next as they get 50% of the cards you pass them. I will discuss later drafting techniques that seem to have sound advice behind them.

• Pack Draft - 2-4 players - 60-120 cards
o Shuffle and deal out three 10 card “packs” to each player. Make sure they are kept separated as 10 card packs.
o Then each player chooses one of their packs, without looking at it beforehand, and now looks at it.
o Each player chooses 1 card of that pack to keep, passing the remaining to the player on their Left.
o Then with the passed cards they choose another card, and so on till each player has 10 cards.
o With the second pack, do the same but pass to the right.
o The third pack will go to the left player again.
o By the end, every player should have a 30 card deck

This is the “traditional” way other CCGs handle Pack Drafts. This is also a perfectly fine, balanced way to keep reusing and re-enjoying your initial purchase. No two decks will be the same, new strategies show up, and new interactions can be discovered; often quite accidentally at first.

• Open Draft - 2 Player - 60 Cards (variant below)
o Shuffle the Stack and deal four cards face up.
o Player 1 picks 1 card
o Player 2 Picks 2 cards
o Player 1 gets the final card.
o The next four cards are dealt.
o This time player 2 picks first and forth, while player 1 gets second and third pick.
o This alternates until each player has 30 cards.

We always called this “The Wheel” format, but mind you names are irrelevant. I enjoy the simplicity of this format. What this does however is introduce open information. Both players effectively know what bombs and strategies are in each other’s deck. This can lead to some slow drafting as players try to over think the weight of their picks. Unless money or a title are riding on this, just try out new strategies, or go with your instinct.

As far as making this format for more players, you can add a fifth and sixth card for a third player. It would go Player 1 gets picks 1 & 6, Player 2 gets picks 2 & 5, while player 3 gets picks 3 & 4; etc. If you go to 3 or 4 players, I suggest getting a First Player/Pick Marker you can pass to denote who started the picks this round. IN the heat of the later rounds, pick order can get fuzzy.

• Winchester Draft - Unofficial - 30+ cards per player (so 2 Players is 60+ cards, and 4 is 120)
o Shuffle the Stack, and lay out 4 face up cards (“Piles”), like in Open Draft
o The drafting player picks a “Pile”, then adds a card to the piles not chosen
 This will equal 1-2-2-2 cards in the piles after first pick
o This will always leave one pile with just 1 card while the others grow.
o Then the next player chooses a “pile”
o This continues until every player has 30 cards
 See below for clarifications

**Clarifications: This is based on an MtG format where players will have more than the required deck minimum and then trim out cards they do not need to reach the required minimum; 30 for Epic players. If you have more than 30 cards per player in the stack, that is a sure way this format can work; with players trimming their drafted cards down to a 30 card deck, returning the unused cards to the box.

****Alternatively, you can have players stop drafting once they reach their 30+ Limit, returning the excess immediately to the bottom of the Stack so the other players can continue.

This is Open Draft but with Push-Your-Luck elements. Obviously I like it. Usually the “Piles” do not get too big as players often pick them up before too long.

• Winston Draft - Unofficial - 2 Player - 60+ cards
o Shuffle the Stack and place three cards facedown
o The drafting player looks at the first facedown card
o They may choose to take it, or return it facedown, adding another card off the top of the Stack (facedown) to that “Pile”
o Same goes for the second and third “Pile”
o If the drafting player does not take the third “Pile”, they MUST take the top card of the Stack
o Continue until all cards are Drafted

This format was invented by Richard Garfield, designer of Magic the Gathering. Like Winchester, which was based on this, the fattening stacks makes some choices fun, and others a gamble. However, by leaving the information hidden, the contents of each player’s deck are a secret.

• Rochester Draft - Unofficial- 2-4 Players - 30 Cards per Player
o Shuffle the stack and deal out 10 (or 15) cards
o Denote a starting drafter for this round (usually with a counter/marker)
o They pick a card and in rotation, each player picks a card until all 10 (or 15) have been drafted
o Pass the Counter/Marker, and deal another set of 10 (or 15)
 The person with the counter is now the initial drafter this round
o Continue until the Stack is depleted, and drafted. Every player should have their 30 cards

The main issue here is draft length. There is a lot to be seen as people pour over the cards and Analysis Paralysis sets in. I would only recommend this for the enthusiast who knows the Epic game well

• Grid Draft - Unofficial - 2 Player - 30+ cards per player
o Shuffle the Stack
o Deal 9 cards out in a 3 x 3 pattern (or 4x4, etc)
o The initial drafter this round takes either a Column or Row
o Then the next drafter takes either a Column or Row, discarding the remaining
o Repeat
 **See Below

Since this is based on an MtG format, the numbers are not perfect. However, I do have some solutions for this.
1) Draft till you have 30+, trimming the excess.
2) If only using an exact number of cards (because you stretched it to more players, or split an Epic Deck), shuffle the discarded cards back up if needed, re-dealing in a grid like pattern for the final rounds (2x2, 3x3, etc).

This being another open information, and variable quantity draft format, has some fun yet challenging moments. It is essentially Open Draft, but with more cards available thus swingier rounds.

●Solomon Draft - Unofficial - 2 Player
○ Shuffle the Stack
○ Drafter #2** takes the top 8 (or 5, or 10) cards
○ Drafter #2 divides them into two face up piles
○ Drafter #1 takes a pile, and Drafter #2 gets the remaining pile
○ Drafter #2 now makes two piles with Drafter #1 getting first choice.
○ Repeat until both players have 30+ cards

This is a great, often hilarious, format. The piles can sometimes get very weighted. Do you do a 2 card "Bomb" pile versus 8 card "Crap" pile? If that choice is given to you, which is better for you?

I have not figued out what the right number of cards that need divvied is.

**Drafter #2 is just whomever is chosing first. If you are figuring it out, it is usually Divvy First vs Chose/Play First.

+++This can be done with 4 Players, the cards are just made into 4 piles. The cards divvied can be as low as 5, or as high as you like. I personally would need it to be around 10 cards for first time drafters. More than that is overwhelming for first time drafter/divvy-ers.
If you do 4 players, player 4 goes first in their match.

--This is just putting out some of the various Magic Limited Draft Formats around. Next time I will take one or more of these in-depth to advocate some of their uses. Enjoy and let me know how things go.

-Travis M.-

Tyrants Review: Wild

2016-03-26T17:52:00.002-07:00

This one seems a good aggro piece, Solid body for both attack and defense. In the worst case, it is a worse Triceratops

Kill your opponent or save your defenders and draw two cards. Pretty sweet deal. Especially for token heavy decks.

First non-promo gold gainer. This is a pseudo-0-cost 8/12 breakthrough champion. If your deck is wild-heavy, you definitely run 3 copies of this.

Ambush is always a plus, On top of that it have evasion and also replaces itself via loyalty ability.

4 seems to be the critical defense threshold. Therefore this kills most of the critical champions, Also can be used to deal that final 5 damage.

This seems like anti-human,wolf and zombie. Clearing the board from small critters every turn is good. However this seems to be the second weakest tyrant.

Unless you are going almost exclusively wild, there is not much need to run this card. Grouping generally does the job and when you need this card, you must be probably behind.

11/9 is nice. Also replaces itself. I am not sure how useful 4 damage to champion would be. Must be tested.

Another dino. Dino is the theme of wild in tyrants. Ambush and breakthrough is nice. Also buffes your other dinos. 3-of in a dino deck.

Straightforward. Not that appealing in constructed.

This is the star of the wild. Buff + draw 2 is good enough in itself. on top of that, you produce value when it is in discard pile.

Seems worthless.

Tyrants Review: Sage

2016-03-25T13:30:00.001-07:00

Do you want to find another piece of that sweet micro-combo, this card is for you. You need that finisher, this card is for you. However, I am not sure these motivations are enough to include this card into your deck.

I am not that fond of this champion. There are better recurring removals out there. Use it only you can't use High King.

Combat trick. Potentially can break a champion or save you for one more turn. However, not that good overall.

This card is really good. It is 2-for-0 because it also replaces itself. In a control deck, this is a free pseudo-wipe. Definitely playable.

Not sure how to feel about this. it can 2-for-1 by taking control of a champion and blocking another with it. Expend ability seems on the weak side.

This, is a star. Card advantage + unblockable and 9 offense is just crazy. Definite 3-of.

I am not sure about this one. It is a pseudo-versatile event but it sits in your hand if you draw it in early game. Needs some play testing.

Idea behind this card is good but I think it is a small body and don't compensate the downside of randomness.

This is just attack twice and block once card. It can be effective in multiples. Harder to play it effectively. Not for beginners.

This is another star. A soft removal, and a free token remover. Nice offense with unblockable. Its ally ability is a bit slow to keep up with token strategies.

This is an erase variant. It is more useful when your hand is full. 2-of seems good in control decks.

Perfect. Just perfect. 0-cost soft removal. This is what control decks with packed hands is looking for.

Tyrants Review: Good

2016-03-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Lets make opposing champions pseudo-tokens and mess up opponent's plans! It also recycle itself so no loss in there. It evens the field for token decks. Should be tested for further evaluation.

Another good removal for control decks. If you are a token deck, you probably have better options to cast in your turn and giving chump blockers to your opponent is not that good due to racing.

This is really strong in a token shell. It allows you to go all in without the fear of losing your tokens. It also doubles their offense. 3-of in human token shell.

Anti-control, anti demon, decent body, May be 1-of or 2-of in decks. Not synergistic with token strategy.

This is a weird card. It is really good if you can discard it and take advantage of ally ability. I wouldn't cast it unless there is nothing else to do.

Counterpart of demon generator. It also gives a nice offense boost. easy 3-of in token shell.

This is a double edged sword. Non-token decks would play it for first ability and token decks for its second ability. Definitely will see play.

This card is essential for token builds. exponentially increasing number of tokens is scary

This is like a finisher. Do this after they spent their gold and you are good to go.

Ambush and a protective shield for others. It is still weak against board wipe but this does not make this card less powerful. Angel of Mercy + this and you are good to go.

Simply trash, Not worth to include

Draw 2 cards plus two tokens. Double trouble, No need to say much. Just perfect.

Tyrants Review: Evil

2016-03-24T13:53:00.002-07:00

From the first look, Tyrants expansion seems more powerful. One thing I realized is alignments are getting different in their own play styles. They were much closer to each other in the core set. Without further ado, Lets look at the evil alignment and see what it offers.

This is an interesting and powerful card. You can break a champion which you primarily played for its tribute ability to get rid of two strong ones of your opponent's. It can open the way to victory in a single turn. I see it being at least 2-of in decks.

This is basically a token remover. I am not sure how many times tokens would attack as a group. They may do so to play around ceasefire or take down some blockers. I don't have much experience with token strategies so I am not sure how much value this card contains. However it is clear that, after tyrants promoting token strategies, each alignment needs some form of token removal. This card may fill that gap.

A discard pile control for evil. It also increases the chances of survival for control decks. On hind sight, it seems inferior to the Amnesia due to recycle but often I found that I am on my hand limit with my card draw sources lie dormant and want to play something so that I can empty my hand. Therefore, for now, I value this more than Amnesia.

A breaker with almost no downside! Most of the time, you play breakers on your opponent's turn. So Bitten or Inner Demon actually compensates the loss for your opponent. This card is superior to them in that sense. I would choose this over others for that reason. Ally ability is also a plus.

Another token generator. Effect seems really weak for a card slot. Wouldn't prefer much.

Perfect removal for demon token strategies. In a broader sense, it is fringe playable.

Its loyalty ability is break any non-demon opposing token. Tribute ability and static ability only would make it playable. I expect him to see some play.

You want blockers, have some. You want board wipe, it can deliver it as well. May replace Apocalypse considering that many other events provide you draw two option.

This is strong. I mean crazy strong. It is a demon, breaks a champion when enters the play and turns all 1-cost evil cards to a removal. Definitely will see widespread play. You need to find a way to get rid of opposing tokens.

0-cost, ambush, token generator... Apparently, Raxxa made a sweet deal with Epic developers. Just test it and see.

This is an interesting card. However, in the current card pool, it is not that effective. Just remember its existence where player targeting cards dominates the meta.

Zombie tokens are weak. Also, they stink. After demon tokens get this much love, this card is not that effective. Wouldn't go for it.

Ambush: Key to Victory [Part 2]

2016-03-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

One of the best ambush champions out there. It eliminates a threat or an annoying blocker. It also deploys a decent body. If you think you can activate its loyalty reliably, including 3-of is a must.

Control: 8/10
Aggro: 8/10

This is a good card for control decks. Especially returning 0-cost or slow speed events. Evasion also makes it a ticking clock for your opponent.

Control: 7/10
Aggro: 2/10

In my opinion, this is the best 0-cost card in the set. It easily survives one turn and many more. If you running sage, this is 3-of.

Control: 10/10

Aggro: 10/10

Another decent ambush card. It at least replaces itself and shines in a good-heavy deck. More useful for aggro players because control players have other options for card advantage.

Control: 5/10

Aggro: 8/10

This card is not good. There are other good options out there. I wouldn't include it in my decks. It may be marginally useful in a control deck that wants to spend its gold without committing the board.

Control: 3/10

Aggro: 0/10

Another typical aggro card. However it needs a good-heavy board and also small body in itself. It may shine in a token build.

Control: 0/10

Aggro: 2/10

This is a solid card if you can activate its loyalty. Kills a champion, have evasion and medium body. It is a good candidate for aggro decks.

Control: 2/10

Aggro: 7/10

May be the best control champion out there. The effect of disparity it creates is enormous. Should be a cornerstone of every control deck. Even Aggro decks can benefit from it as a 1-of

Control: 10/10

Aggro: 4/10

A reusable removal in fast speed. I am in! It can also return yours to reuse their tribute powers.

Control: 8/10
Aggro: 2/10

Don't know what to think about this. It grows over time but can be chump blocked. Needs to be tested.

Control: 2/10
Aggro: 2/10

It recycles itself and has evasion. However it is a small body so I am hesitant to include it.

Control: 0/10
Aggro: 0/10

Ambush: Key to Victory [Part 1]

2016-03-23T11:04:00.001-07:00

During my games, I found myself my hand full with removal but nothing to cast as a threat on opponent's turn (mostly because they answered one of the threats I cast during my turn). I was "forced" to use one of my events to draw two cards, in a desperate attempt to find some threats for next turns. It signified a fatal weakness in my deck: lack of sufficient champions with ambush. But why exactly ambush is important?

For Control Decks:

The aim of playing a control deck is trying to create an opening (a.k.a stabilizing or taking control of the game) for a marginal gain, then maintaining that gain to beat your opponent. You must be ready to exploit such opening, whether it happened in your turn or your opponent's. In Epic, ambush champions are the way to do it in opponent's turn. Abundance of such champions is a blessing and a curse for control players (I explained it in another article).

For Aggro Decks:

Keeping pressure on your opponent is key to victory in aggro decks. To be able to do it, you must ensure stable stream of strong threats. Not playing an ambush creature is just the opposite of that. You are relieving the pressure on your opponent and give him a chance to either stabilize or outrace you. Seriously, don't do that! It's bad!

Lets take a look on ambush champions and which type of decks they can be useful.

This card fits more into control shell than aggro shell. It has evasion and also regain some life you may lost in the early game. In an aggro shell, it helps you to outrace your opponent. Not worth much if you can't activate its loyalty consistently.

Control: 6/10

Aggro: 3/10

This is plain and simple aggro card. Free threat every turn. Woo hoo! Having two of these babies on the board for 2 turn pretty much guarantees the win.

Control: 2/10

Aggro: 10/10

Another aggro piece. Protects your champions and also a decent body. 9 defense can be useful for control but there are many more other options that can replace this.

Control: 2/10

Aggro: 8/10

Plain old aggro. It benefits if you are going wide. However forces you to attack as a group if you want to take advantage of it and it needs to survive the attack. You will have a board position that you won't need it when you can generate value from it. Its value is much lower than it seems. It can be useful in current token builds however it also gets wiped by 0-cost wild removers. Needs more testing.

Control: 0/10

Aggro: 2/10

This card can find a place in both types. It has decent offense, and also card advantage when necessary. Also resiliency against removal makes it a menace for control decks.

Control: 7/10
Aggro: 8/10

Definitely aggro. Hit fast and survive type. In the worst case, it flips one of the blockers for free each turn.

Control: 0/10

Aggro: 10/10

A token enabler. I don't think they are viable in the current card pool.

Control: 0/10
Aggro: 0/10

This is for discard pile control. There are more efficient options. I wouldn't waste a slot with this.

Control: 0/10

Aggro: 0/10

This is another good aggro card. It can move around blockers. it also create immediate value if you activate loyalty. This can be the finisher for an aggro deck. It can be reliable in a control build as a repeatable small champion remover.

Control:5/10

Aggro: 10/10

On the surface, this seems like another finisher for aggro. However, considering aggro decks won't use many sage cards to consistently activate the loyalty, and have better options like Frost Giant and Deadly Raid, it cannot find home in aggro decks. It can gain a turn for control decks but Ceasefire is order of magnitude better than this. Not that useful overall.

Control: 0/10

Aggro: 0/10

This one is more control finisher than aggro champion. Not having a breakthrough makes it weak against chump block. However control can clean the board to make its damage go through.

Control: 9/10

Aggro: 3/10

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 3]

2016-03-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

Removers:

These are the champions that breaks, banishes or returns other champions. With them being blockers, they have a chance of 2-for-1 trades (except Thrasher Demon).

Token Generators:

These champions leave some tokens behind. Their benefit is marginal.

Miscellaneous:

These are the champions that can be useful depending on situation.

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 2]

2016-03-20T15:55:00.003-07:00

Strong Card Advantage:

These cards provide you two cards and a temporary champion. I think strongest one is Thought Plucker because it destroys opponent hand while giving you extra cards. Downside is, you need to return it in slow speed. Winter Fairy guarantees two cards, and have a possibility of 3 cards if you return in slow speed. Crystal Golem is another guaranteed two cards and maybe a blocker. Raging T-Rex is a huge body which almost guarantees to break a champion and you can get card advantage via loyalty.

Weak card advantage:

These are the cards that give you a card and a temporary champion. Best one is Triceratops because being a solid body as well as unconditional draw. Djinn of the Sands is the worst because it cannot attack and also draw a card.

Board Wipe:

There are 2 board wipes: one hard and one soft. They can be returned on opponent's turn for fast wipe or on your turn for wipe + damage. However them being loyalty dependent restricts them a lot.

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 1]

2016-03-20T13:46:00.001-07:00

One of the most powerful cards in the set seems so innocent at the first sight. Here is Final Task:

Your final task is winning the game!

In its naive form, it offers an attacker or a blocker (potentially can break opponent's champion), maybe get a marginal value from tribute or loyalty. However, you can get much more benefit from it if you use it cleverly. I tried to recap various ways to use it. I tiered them, top left one being the best and bottom right one being the worst.

Best things to use it on:

Necromancer lord is the best champion it can be used. It returns another champion permanently. It can also create chain of Necromancer Lords if you can trigger loyalty and there are other Necromancer Lords in graveyards. I will write another article on options for using Necromancer Lord. Sky is the limit. Be creative!

Trihorror, used as an attacker or blocker will either kill a powerful champion or deal massive damage, When it dies, it will leave another 12/12 body on the table for you.

Fast Permanent Champions:

These are the champions that becomes persistent due to their unbreakability. They also give an unbreakable attacker or blocker as a bonus. For apparent reasons, Priest of Kalnor is relatively weaker.

Slow Permanent Champions:

These are the champions that are permanent if you return them on your turn. They give you an unbreakable attacker on top of it.

Why it is hard to succeed with pure control in Epic?

2016-03-18T08:34:00.005-07:00

As an avid control player, one observation I made about the game is that -in its current form- Epic doesn't support pure control strategies. Core reason of this is the resource system game use. Epic uses simple yet elegant "gold system" as its resource model. System allows fast and furious games and keeps players "in the game" all the time. However it has its drawbacks. Major one is it disfavors a major branch of strategy pool. Yes, pure control. Here are the key points I identified related to this issue.

1. No resource curve

In Epic, players have all their resources they will ever have from turn 1. This allows them to play their "most powerful card" potentially early in the game. There is no early game that allows control player to "refine" his hand. Threats are big immediately. Almost every turn is always "answer or die" situation for control player.

2. No blank draws

Every alignment in the game has plentiful access to card draws. Most of the events "recycle" themselves by offering a card draw option. Majority of this events actually generate card advantage by drawing two cards. Therefore, there is no "blank draws" which will give the control player an opening to cast their threats.

3. Weak hand control

Yes, there are some hand control cards (e.g Psionic Assault, Thought Plucker) however their effect is highly diminished due to point 2 above. The only card that can create an opening for you is Psionic Assault which can happen if opponent doesn't have any cards in their hand and no threats on their board, they draw a card they need to "recycle" and they don't draw any 0 cost threats when they recycle it. If this happens, a control player can play a threat in his turn to allow him take the control and "lead the game".

4. "Recall for gold" mechanic

Recall mechanic allows players to "trade" one action for one card. It makes threats consistent unless they are prevented with discard pile manipulation. Unless you have a multiple use discard pile manipulation card, they force you to make a two for one trade that puts you on disadvantage.

5. Weak "x-for-1" trade options

X-for-1 options for control player is fairly limited. There is recurrent removals (e.g High King, Dark Assassin) which is easy to answer, or board wipes that is generally "slow", namely, you need to cast them on your turn. Board wipes also gets rid of any threat or recurring advantage champions you have.

6. Ambush is common

Many creatures have ambush, which forces control player to have "one answer per turn". It is easy to find yourself in a position that you run out of cards and hope for a board wipe from top deck draw. Even though you get that top deck wipe immediately, you will be damaged by an ambush creature at least once. Considering the average offense of the champions, you have total 3-6 turns to find it. If you find yourself in that position for the second time, you are pretty much dead.

-------

Is all of these issues makes control decks not viable? I don't think so. However it is clear that playing control is orders of magnitude more challenging than aggro / aggro-control decks. There can be a dormant powerful control deck which waits to be discovered by a skillful player. Are you up for this challenge? Let me know your thoughts on the comments.

Happy playing!

Resources for online play

2016-03-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

I made a custom XML file for cockatrice so that players who live remotely can play Epic over cockatrice. Also, there is a discord channel for communication. All required links are below.

Cockatrice
------------------------------------------------------
Automatic Cockatrice Epic Installer (for Windows) (Thanks to vjjft)
OR
Epic Mod Source Files (For Linux and OSX) (Thanks to vjjft)
------------------------------------------------------
Discord Channel
Cockatrice Play Guide

How to install Epic database manually:
1. Download the zip file
2. Go to "C:\Users\<account name>\AppData\Local\Cockatrice"
3. Replace "cards.txt" and "tokens.txt" files in that directory with downloaded files.
4. Restart Cockatrice

Epic Insights

Four Color Control

How to Play Modal Cards

Sage Dinosaurs

Epic Combos and Rules

Apocalyptic Time Walker

Cockatrice Game Replays

Decks in Epic Foundry

Cockatrice Play Guide

Initial Setup

Using Your Gold

Initiative

Champion States

Useful Shortcuts / Directions.

Wild Burn

Epic can be so Limited

Tyrants Review: Wild

Tyrants Review: Sage

Tyrants Review: Good

Tyrants Review: Evil

Ambush: Key to Victory [Part 2]

Ambush: Key to Victory [Part 1]

For Control Decks:

For Aggro Decks:

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 3]

Removers:

Token Generators:

Miscellaneous:

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 2]

Strong Card Advantage:

Weak card advantage:

Board Wipe:

Final Task: a Toolbox [Part 1]

Best things to use it on:

Fast Permanent Champions:

Slow Permanent Champions:

Why it is hard to succeed with pure control in Epic?

1. No resource curve

2. No blank draws

3. Weak hand control

4. "Recall for gold" mechanic

5. Weak "x-for-1" trade options

6. Ambush is common

Resources for online play

How to install Epic database manually:1. Download the zip file2. Go to "C:\Users\<account name>\AppData\Local\Cockatrice"3. Replace "cards.txt" and "tokens.txt" files in that directory with downloaded files.4. Restart Cockatrice

How to install Epic database manually:
1. Download the zip file
2. Go to "C:\Users\<account name>\AppData\Local\Cockatrice"
3. Replace "cards.txt" and "tokens.txt" files in that directory with downloaded files.
4. Restart Cockatrice